Pete is "tired of shit anime". He wants to watch something good like Shingu. So would we all, of course, but unfortunately shows that fine are very rare.

He lists a large number of recent shows he's watched without finishing and explained why. One of his entries:

Asobi ni Ikuyo: Seen 1. Aoi is a syco bitch.

He's reacting to a scene in the first episode where Aoi materializes a really huge pistol and threatens to kill the man driving the car she's in.

Well, it's a disturbing scene, but Pete has totally misjudged it. She's not a psycho bitch. Rather, she's a lot like Yurika in Noir. Her back story comes out and it turns out she was rejected by her parents, taken in by a government agency, and trained by them to become an assassin. She hates it, and she hates them. The man she threatened is one of the ones she despises, and in the conversation just before that point he was being particularly disrespectful, treating her as a tool. She decided to put the fear of God into him.

But that impression of a cold, merciless killer is entirely wrong. Deep down she wants to love and be loved. Deep down she is very lonely. And by ep 3 she's quit her job for that government agency and is a fugitive from the whole Japanese government.

Eris hires her to be security staff for the fledgeling Cathean embassy, which gives her legal cover and diplomatic immunity. Manami becomes her friend. And one of the pleasures in the show is watching Aoi coming out of her shell and learning how to be a person. And instead of using her combat skills (which are outstanding) when and where a faceless government tells her to, she uses those skills to protect people she cares about.

I think Aoi is the most interesting character in the series, and she changes more than anyone else does over the course of it. But she isn't a monster, not at the beginning and not at the end.

Pete's got it all wrong, and if he let that one scene prevent him from watching the rest of the series, then he did miss something pretty good. I won't say that Asobi ni Iku Yo is as good as Shingu but damned little else is, either.

It's a lot better than he gives it credit for being.

UPDATE: Pete has seen these comments and isn't impressed. (He proves it by violating Godwin's Law.) I cite another opinion:

I wanted to check one little thing out in Asobi ni Iku Yo! but I found myself popping the next episode in as soon as the previous one finished. This one was definitely better the second time through much like Lucky Star was. If I had to summarize the difference in viewing experiences I’d say Asobi ni Iku Yo! was just easier to enjoy the second time. I liked the characters from the moment they were first introduced and the early plot twists made much more sense this time around. I was also able to better catch and enjoy the references to science fiction that infused the series this time as well as see how the fluffy exterior hid a rather well thought-out story of first contact between two cultures.

Posted by: Steven Den Beste in General Anime at 01:33 PM | Comments (10) | Add Comment
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